Tuesday, November 29, 2011

One of my favorite parts of being a designer is seeing all of your FOs pop up. I love seeing how you modify the patterns, what yarns you use, how you style your knits. I am absolutely inspired by the fun you have shooting (or look like you are having!), and how happy most of you look modeling all your hard work. I admit I have a hard time not hitting the "fave button" every time I see one of you in your knits out there on the web, but I try to keep it to only 2 or 3 a day.

I also try to take the time to check whatever comments you guys make. Since the rest of the world is seeing your thoughts on my patterns, I may as well know what's being said, right? But, thanks to the amazing reach of the web, not all of you are in my part of the world, and not all of you comment in English!

Enter Google Translate. This is a beautiful thing, but it has a really hard time with Russian. I'm not sure why, since it does a lovely job with German and French and most the Scandanavian languages, but Russian is always amusing. So... this weekend, Kaveshicka's White Swan popped up in my FO list. She's from Altai, Russia.

Her Allegheny is really gorgeous - those pics could have come right out of a Vogue magazine, and she had a few things to say, so I cut and pasted right into Google translate and found out the following things:

1. She caught this big chunk of undyed yarn in her reel. (while fishing?)

2. All the spokes are connected by gum in the top half of the dress

3. The gain on the skirt is made of rubber bands.

As long as it doesn't claim she's been knitting on her pet schnauzer or working in smoked meat, I guess we're OK.

Do check out her dress though, it's AMAZING!

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Less amazing is my finished Sweater that has no name. I'm getting there, just haven't decided.

All this guy needs is some blocking, a few days of pattern writing, and an hour with Caro's camera. My goal with this was to create a muffin top hiding pullover. Yes, that was my actual goal.

Post Halloween/Thanksgiving, I can attest to the power of the design. The muffin top has arrived in full form, and the clever ribbing placement and needle tricks hide it just in time. I may not be able to write it up in time for this year's muffin top knitting, but it should be ready to go by late Jan or early Feb. And you can all knit it in time for next year's holiday gut needs - or the late winter pudge, either way. It'll be a handy sweater to have around, don't you think? I may need to do a cardigan with the same magical properties.

In addition to creating gut Spanx out of wool, I have been playing with flowers for St. Germain. Pretty, right?

And lastly, the latest on Mint Julep -

All this guy is waiting on is the final edit, but my tech editor went into labor this week! (the nerve, right?) She knew about the baby beforehand, so I had plenty of time to figure things out.

(She's not from the TV show where the all the mothers sudden realize they're having a baby.... and they're totally surprised. Which completely perplexes me. Even if they're that stupid, their friends and family don't see it? No one says anything? ) Anyways...

Whether I actually did figure things out ahead of time is another story. And if any of the the three tech editors that got my emails this AM are reading, they may be chuckling right now. Ahem,

Did you see how quickly she knit the dress too? WOW! I think we must have the same tech editor. I had to get another one to pinch hit for me! What cracked me up is she actually sent me a message letting me know she was going into labor and wouldn't be able to tech edit. Honestly, honey, you didn't need to write. I would have understood!

That is an awesome awesome goal for a sweater. I luckily don't gain any weight over Thanksgiving, but it is probably the time of the year I'm most vigilant (though I make so many sweets at this time of the year that I have to be extra careful anyway).

lol at translations. loveint the fibery goodness , as usual! Hmm, a name for the purple lovely.... sticking with drink themes, the first thing that immediately entered my mind was "purple jesus" or maybe "purple godsmack" lol.

A muffin top- hiding pullover is the holy grail for me! Heck, any clothing article that hides the muffin top would be awesome. Can't wait to see this one, as well as the lambic cowl - I have some Bashful all lined up for that one!

A question - will there be Plucky yarns at the Winchester trunk show in January? Just curious!